“Wait,” Archer said. “You mean she intends to make it look like we did it by using the sperm bank, and then go after me to help her support the kid? How crazy could a person be?”
“Haven’t we already had that discussion?” Kady reminded him. She had no doubts at all now about just how far Mia would go to get what she wanted, whatever that really was.
“Well, sweetheart, this isn’t even the discussion I wanted to have when I called you,” said Archer then.
“Really? What was?”
“I know this is a really stupid way to bring it up, circumstances being what they are, but there’s something I have desperately wanted to ask you for a while now,” he admitted. “See, you’re having my baby and we love each other very much, so if this was a normal situation we probably would have already resolved this, but Kady, I want you to be my wife. As soon as I get out of this hell hole. We could have a huge wedding with plenty of media attention, and there’d be absolutely no more doubt who my girl was.”
“I don’t want to marry you just to get Mia off our backs,” Kady said sternly.
“While I admit that might help in that regard, I can assure you it’s not the reason I’m asking,” he chuckled. “I just can’t see the rest of my life without you in it. When I think about our son, I find myself hoping we end up with a daughter, too. Aren’t those the kind of thoughts a man has when he’s considering the thing to be official?”
“Yeah, they sure sound like some pretty official thoughts,” she agreed. “But weddings take some planning, Archer, especially ones that will become a media circus. And if they let you out soon, I don’t want to get married while I am as huge as a house, either.”
“No, sweetie, we’ll make sure the little guy’s out of there before the main event,” he agreed. “I know you’ve probably been designing your dress since you were twelve years old or something, but how about if we officially let you do it now? No holds barred, the sky is the limit, I want you to design the wedding dress of your dreams, okay?”
“And we could put our son in a little baby tuxedo,” Kady added with a grin.
“Perfect!” Archer agreed.
“It’d be winter if we wait on him,” she said. “Do we want to do green and red?
“I’ll leave all that up to you and my mother,” he said. “I know you two live for that sort of thing. Whatever you do, though, my tux is going to be black, and if you go with that theme the tie can be red. Green should be the accent color, not the main color. And maybe use darker tones, not too bright. And we could get a banquet hall for the reception, with the tables alternately dressed in red, green, and white cloths. All the glasses are tall flutes, decorated with holly, and every table could have wreaths wrapped around pillar candles—“
“Wow, Archer, way to leave the details to us,” Kady chuckled.
“What can I say?” he replied. “You two have really rubbed off on me. So, since we’ve already got the table settings in order, I take it that’s an official yes?”
“Of course it is, you silly man,” she grumbled. “You already knew my answer before you even asked.”
“I love you so much, Kady,” he told her then, his voice soft and sweet as it reached her ear.
“I love you too, Archer,” she sai
d. “Thanks for being my one and only.”
“Always,” he said.
They went on like that for a while, wrapped up in their future plans, until Archer had to go back to his cell for the night. Kady was so happy she slept like a log. Dreams of wedding bells and white dresses tumbled through her head, making her smile in her sleep.
The next morning, Miss Cooper called, bright and early, waking Kady from her blissful reverie. Sleepily, Kady answered the phone.
“What did Archer have to say about everything?” she wanted to know. Kady could hear the scratch of pen on paper from the other end of the line.
“Well, apparently the escort thing was a total lie,” she said. “Archer said that since he was at school with Parker, he was aware that he lived in an apartment with the three women, but that he never actually met Mia until three weeks before Parker got arrested, and she had immediately become a clingy nuisance that time as well.”
“Yeah, that makes a lot more sense,” the reporter agreed. “I can’t find any evidence to support the two of them knowing each other until Mia made that scene in the restaurant and then started blasting the newspapers. I think she told me all those things hoping that I’d write some weird, sensational piece like the others have been doing for her so far.”
“Tell you what, how would you like to write the real scoop instead?” Kady offered.
“I’d absolutely love to,” she replied, and so Kady spent the next half hour talking about her childhood, being raised in the slums and clawing her way out, the string of events that led her to Archer’s door, and eventually, his heart. Kady told her their whole story, and Miss Cooper wrote that one instead.
Chapter 39
The train of Kady’s gown required two women to hold it off the ground for her as she walked from the car to the chapel. She kept them on hand to help her until she was done with the vows and removed it, and then one of them set it inside a bag to store for nostalgia’s sake and put it inside the car so it would not be forgotten.
Baby Eros was cooing in his mother’s arms now that they were in Archer’s visionary banquet hall, and proud papa, in his tux and tails, paused to snap their picture.